Band:	A Sleepless Malice
Album:	A Sleepless Malice
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	October 31, 2010
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Prelude
02. Pulling The Strings Of Temptation
03. Familiar
04. A Plague Upon Me
05. Dead, White, And Blue
06. Apex Of Tragedy
07. Cesspool Of Ignorance

Well fuck me. Here I was expecting something...Well, something I'm used to reviewing - you know; generic band with slight potential but realistically won't go anywhere past that first album. It's the unfortunate truth of the music industry, you really hate to shit on a young, budding career, but bad music is bad music no matter how you slice it. But I digress, this band actually makes me happy to be a reviewer.

What's most impressive about this brief full-length is the seamless cross-breeding of styles. It's sort of got that Arsis appeal of blending melodeath with a more jagged techy-death side, while some metalcore elements push through here and there. A Sleepless Malice will definitely have appeal for those who enjoy that nice balance between harmony and aggression - that's what melodeath is about after all, isn't it? Then there's the technical side; maybe this is just a complaint coming from a failed musician, but there's nothing worse than some wanker shoving his technical prowess in your face while completely blowing off any regard for constructing some coherent songs. What's all this got to do with A Sleepless Malice? Absolutely nothing, I just hate wanking, and for once it's nice to hear someone using their talents tastefully.

One complaint, just one. These clean vocals. Can't stand 'em. Not only do they throw off the great flow these songs have in general, they also don't really gel all too well with the production; maybe if they didn't sound so stifled I could see them fitting in, but as it stands with this album, they seem to throw off the consistency. That being said, clean vocals aren't exactly rampant throughout this album, so they aren't of very big concern in the overall picture.

Solid up-and-coming band with a lot of appeal on a number of levels, it really wouldn't surprise me to see this band wind up joining Metal Blade or Nuclear Blast's roster eventually.